RECOMMENDED
Commercials veteran David Scheinmann’s improvised drama-comedy of sexual confusion among contemporary thirtysomething Londoners, “The West Wittering Affair,” was shot on digital video in ten days across three years for about 50,000 pounds; the ability to let the takes roll and roll and then condense them in editing appears to be the greatest technical strength of the intermittent comic inspiration in the affairs of an unlucky-in-love chef, a mean-spirited actress, a therapist who’s bad in the sack and a woman who’s not been with anyone for ages, and confesses to her video camera. An unlikely attempt to fuse Richard Curtis and Mike Leigh, “West Wittering” doesn’t rise to its apparent ambitions, but it bears the mortifying charm of contemporary episodic television that dwells on embarrassment, with more sit than com. 92m. 35mm. (Ray Pride)